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The Empire Elite League Cometh...

Races of all shapes and sizes. Shaming themselves. Leaving their homes for shiny, shiny coins. To do what, you ask? To play Blood Bowl for the Imperial Citizenry of the Empire, that's what.

Years of peace and prosperity has brought the Empire unimaginable wealth. The triumph of this great nation has prompted the leading figures of its townships and cities to demand more from their Blood Bowl.

With CPOMB Sunday/Mondays, Bretonnia Joust Tuesdays, 2-1 Grind Wednesdays, OWCC game Thursdays and HUBBA on Fridays, what are the poor folks sat in taverns up and down this great country expected to do on a Saturday? Go home to their families? Listen to the bard? Talk to each other over a quiet pint?! Well, sod that! Spying a gap in the market, an enterprising band of men in Altdorf formed the Conclave.

After plenty of market research ("Oi, Alfric, reckon a quick-fire league'd be alright on Saturdays to stop punters kicking the crap out of each other?", "Erm, we could knock a copper off the beer?" "Try again. New league on Saturdays?" "Yeah mate. Probably be fine.") and a tavern-ful of coin, the Conclave set up the Empire Elite League. The concept: wealthy Imperial landowners hiring human coaches to lead teams of all kinds of races. All for the entertainment of the masses - and, of course, for money.

With ludicrous amounts of gold being thrown around, you can expect to see plenty of haughty Dorfs, Elves and Greenskin swallowing their pride and throwing their lot in with their betters: the imperial humans of the Old World.

Expect to see pointed ears. Expect to see bearded fools. Expect to see horrific, twisted demons loyal to Khorne. All playing for the men and women of the Empire.

It's going to be dEELicious (sorry).
Super 4 Headlines
  • Play any race you like, but name it after a town/city/state of the Empire.
  • Racial cap in place. If there are already two Orc coaches, there cannot be a third. See list of available teams below.
  • Four team round robin divisional play, followed by Super 4 playoffs and the Super 4 Grand Final.
  • Charity Bowl for teams that do not qualify for playoffs.
  • Teams may carry on from season to season.
  • Fluffy team and player names.
General Info
League Admin: Anzelak (PM me)
Region: European Time Zone (though any coach able to play BB time evenings welcome)
League Structure: Multiple Division Round Robins of four teams, followed by playoffs for those who qualify. A Charity Bowl is held for those that don't qualify and new teams may enter midseason at this point. Coaches may carry their teams from season to season, or fold and start a new rookie team.
Current Season: Season 2
Round Length: 10 Days (rolling schedule)
Season Length: 4-team round robin (3 games) followed by short post-season
Unavailable Races: Dwarf, Necro
Reserves: NSKawa, albinv, chimp2010, ahalfling
Joining
Team Names: The EEL is a fluffy league. Wealthy human landowners hire human coaches to coach races from all over the known world. The players have been lured from their homes to play Blood Bowl within the borders of the Empire. The EEL operates a naming policy.

Please adhere to the following format: [Empire State/City/Town Name][Team Name]. You might want to add racial flavour in the team name for fluffiness.

I recommend using this huge map to find a location within the Empire. Names that "sound like" they're from the Empire are perfectly fine.

Here are some (bad) team name examples:

Altdorf Rangers (Human)
Altdorf Black Hoofs (Chaos D)
Reikland Stags (Wood Elf)
Hochland Brigands (Dark Elf)
Sylvania Storm (Undead)

There are no limits to the team names i.e. we could have three Altdorf teams and/or two "Ranger" teams. Rivalries are actively encouraged.
Player Names: Please, for fluffiness, create player names that could reasonably be classed as Elfy/Orcish/Dwarvish (or whichever race you've chosen) i.e. Barannir Bladeweasel okay for an elf; Jim DangerTrousers not so much. However, nicknames are fine: Barannir "DangerTrousers". If you need help, google fantasy name generators.
Images: If possible, try to have a team badge created for your team. This will allow me to induct your team into the Hall of Fame when they do something brilliant. Seriously, I'm no artist, and the crapper the badge the better. If you're good with pixels, please feel free to tell me how bad the images I've made for the EEL are and remake them.
EEL Games Only: You may only play games within the EEL. Non-vanilla teams are not permitted.
Racial Cap: There may only be two teams of each race in the EEL at any given time. Where possible, teams of the same race will not play in the same division.
Playing
Timezone: It's a European timezone league. Coaches are welcome from anywhere so long as they can normally play games during 1800-2300 server time (GMT+1).
Game Frequency: Games are played according to a schedule of 1 game per 10 days. A rolling schedule will be in place, however, and if you are able to play ahead then feel free to do so. Extensions can be given based on the circumstances and a reasonable amount of time and notice.
Forfeits: Hopefully the EEL won't have any forfeits. Coaches who have to forfeit games without reasonable excuse will not be asked back to the EEL next season, and their coach's soul will be baked into an Eel Pie and eaten at the next meeting of the Conclave.
Conceding: You are here to entertain the masses of Imperial Citizenry. The Slippery Eel Stadium Complex has five Blood Bowl pitches, thirteen restaurants and sixty-eight bars - it also has a policy of teams fighting on until the final whistle. Everybody likes an underdog. Conceding a game results in a 1 point deduction.
Game Etiquette: Don't be a douche to other coaches. Everyone should be here to have fun. Unfortunately for your str 4 agi 5 legend wardancer, that rookie linemen is perfectly within his rights to kill-foul him. Even in t16. The EEL will issue the offending Coach with an extremely stern reprimand letter for such behaviour, which will be good for the Coach in question if the privy is out of toilet paper. Seriously though: anything goes in the EEL so long as it's in the CRP rulebook and allowed in the client, and follows the other rules mentioned herein. Timeouts will be heavily frowned on.
Drop Outs: Drop outs will be hunted and killed. Not really - but the EEL kindly asks that you do not drop out midseason. It sucks for everyone. Sometimes there is a legitimate reason (for example, I dropped out of a league earlier in the year because of an extended stay in hospital), but dropouts without reasonable excuse will never be allowed back into the EEL. After the regular season (which, I hasten to add, is only 3 games long), a Coach may decide to fold their franchise. This enables them to quit the EEL or immediately enter another EEL-legal franchise into the Charity Bowl. Please battle on to the bitter end; everyone loves an underdog.
House Rule: The EEL operates only one house rule. All fouls are done with +1 to the roll under all circumstances.
Divisions
Naming: Divisions are named after some of the delicacies available in the Slippery Eel Stadium Complex. We personally recommend you dine in one of the Slippery Eel Taverns, as you're slightly less likely to get food poisioning. Examples of names include (please declare which ones you like, which ones suck and any others you think are better):
  • Jellied Eel Division
  • Eel Pasty Division
  • Breaded Eel and Onion Division
  • Fermented Eel Division
  • Eel Soufflé Division
  • Eel Soup Division
  • Eel Omelette Division
  • Steamed Eel Eggs Division
  • Cheesy Stuffed Eel Division
  • Punnet of Eels Division
Current Divisions:
Format: Divisions of four teams followed by playoffs. Everyone plays everyone for a total of three games. 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. -1 and a ton of boos if you concede.
Tiebreaking: If two teams are tied on the same number of points, they are separated by head to head record, TD-difference, TDs-scored. If they're still tied, it goes down to 'Emperor's Choice'. Basically a game of 'Which hand is the baby eel in, coach?' (a coin flip). Note that three or four way ties will never be resolved by head-to-head records. They are resolved by TD-difference, TDs-scored, Emperor's choice.
Winning: The winner of the division nets themselves a trophy and is given an invitation to the season's Conclave (explained below). The winner of a division also stays in that division next season unless they exit the EEL, in order to defend their divisional title.
Playoffs: Currently, the top 8 teams from the divisional season qualify for the playoffs.
Charity Bowl
Entry: Any team that does not make the playoffs may optionally enter the Charity Bowl. Any EEL coach may also fold their team and enter a new rookie team at this point. Additionally, any coach that wishes to join the EEL for its next season may enter the Charity Bowl, respecting the team racial caps.
Format: The Charity Bowl is a randomly seeded KotH style tournament (each round is random; you won't know who you're playing next). Byes may be used if there are an odd number of teams entering the tournament.
Charity Bowl Final: The winner takes home the broken pieces of the Charity Bowl (they probably should give the Bowl away to charity, but they've already done their bit for the Orphaned Orc Babies and EEL Conservation groups).
Playoffs
Format: KO tournament with teams seeded based on where they placed in the regular season. Divisional winners are seeded 1st, 2nd etc. in order of their divisional records (tiebreaks are handed in the same way as divisional play). Following that, teams take the remaining seeds based on their divisional records. Depending on numbers, the playoffs will consist of 4 or 8 teams. The last remaining 4 teams are known as the 'EEL Super 4' for that season.
The Grand Final: The winner of the Grand Final takes home the EEL Trophy. They will be awarded with a random MVP and a game's worth of gold. If the winner of the Grand Final did not win a divisional title, they are also invited to the Conclave.
The Conclave
Forming the Conclave: The Conclave is a meeting of EEL Coaches held at the end of one season and before the start of the next. It is responsible for The Draft. The Draft places teams into the respective divisions. The following coaches are invited to The Conclave: the divisional winners, the holder of the EEL Trophy and the winner of the Charity Bowl. Each of the Coaches sits down at a large oak table (made from trees cut down in Athel Loren, herp derp), eat a fourteen-course eel-heavy meal, smoke from the Pipe of Plenty and sample the finest Bretonnian wines and Imperial Pale Ales. When they're done, they get down to deciding which teams will face whom.
The Draft: Each member of the Conclave is randomly assigned a number. This is the order they will choose and seed teams into divisions. Importantly, if a Coach's team won both their division and the EEL Trophy (a prestigious double), they do not receive two votes: they still vote only once.

First, teams who won divisions are automatically seeded into the division they won. Then, in order, each member of the Conclave assigns any team from the pool of remaining EEL teams into any division they wish until the divisions are full or the pool of teams is empty. Where possible, two teams of the same race may not be placed in the same division.
Season I
The Knights secured the best casulty differential in the Eel Pasty Division, and matched the Kestrels in TDs scored and conceded, but they couldn't win their crucial last game. It was close, resulting in a 1-0 loss. They had to settle for second place.

Undeterred, they slammed into the playoffs inflicting 5/2/0 casualties against Athel Loren Warhawk, winning the game against the Jellied Eel Division Champions 2-1. They kept their hard-hitting mentality right up to the final and came back from 2-0 down to win the inaugral EEL Grand Final 3-2 after OT. They avenged the divisional defeat against the Kestrels, but star Bretonnian Blizer (MB/Tackle) Sir Tristan paid the ultimate price and ensured that a rivalry between two strong teams is very much in the making.
The Kestrels stormed to victory over the Eel Pasty Division with 3 wins. They conceded only one td and scored four in the regular season, with linemen Tobias Ryfon and Blitzer Finwë Táralóm securing a brace of touchdowns each.

After beating the Monoliths 2-0 in the playoff semi-finals, the Kestrels came up against division rivals the Brettonia Knights in the final. Tor Alessi went 2-0 up, scoring twice on their opponent's offense before the Knights brought it back to 2-1 and the half time whistle sounded. The Kestrels very nearly sealed the deal with a third score, but Elephon was more elephant-like than elf-like and tripped over en route to the endzone. The Brettonians tied it up for OT and the Kestrels lost the toss and kicked. Blitzer Olwë killed star Bretonnian Blizer (MB/Tackle) Sir Tristan, but the Kestrels couldn't prevent the Knight score for the 3-2 OT loss. With defeat, the Kestrels became the last team to lose their unbeaten status in the EEL.
The Warhawk opened their campaign by crushing the Monoliths 5-0. They went on to win twice more and secured a touchdown differential of 9-1. Wardancer Olanis was the regular season top scorer with 4 touchdowns and, after three games, he had two MVPs to go with strip ball and side step skills.

However, eventual EEL Trophy winners the Brettonia Knights smashed them aside in the Super 4 Playoffs. The Warhawks suffered a 2-1 defeat which ended their quest for ultimate glory this season.